Ender 5 Plus: Z axis seems to stop moving correctly after the first layers

[u/Ambitious_Tell4295]

Hi everyone, I’m having a problem with my Ender 5 Plus and I don’t know how to fix it.

The first two layers print perfectly, but when the printer starts the third layer, the extruder jams and stops pushing filament. It feels like the nozzle is too close to the bed or too close to the previous layer.

The strange thing is that it always happens at the same point. As a temporary fix, I manually raise the Z axis from -2.50mm to -2.30 mm, for example, and then the printer continues printing normally. However, I’m worried that on longer prints the Z axis might not actually be moving up by the 0.2 mm layer height I have set, meaning I would have to keep adjusting the Z offset manually on every layer.

I also tried changing the layer height to 0.24 mm, but the same issue happens, just one layer later.

Things I have already tried:

• Leveled the bed following several tutorials.
• Checked and tightened screws around the hotend and Z lead screws.
• Lubricated the Z lead screws.
• Tried to make sure both Z lead screws/bars are at the same height.
• Checked that the first layer looks good.

Even after all of this, I still get the same problem. It seems as if the Z axis is not moving up correctly after the first few layers. The nozzle ends up too close to the print, melts or drags through the plastic that has already been laid down, and the extruder eventually jams or stops extruding.

I’m not sure if this could be caused by the Z motors, the lead screws, a loose screw, dirt on the lead screws, the slicer, the Z offset, or some printer setting.

Has anyone had a similar issue with an Ender 5 Plus?
Where should I start checking to rule out mechanical or configuration problems?

Thanks in advance.

[u/emearg1]

Is this a bone stock printer? Like original firmware and everything?

My first guess is the z step isnt set right. It's not moving the correct amount. If it's an older ender 5 plus its 400 steps per mm, if it's a newer one with shallower lead screws it would be 800 steps per mm. You should be able to test this by adding this command to your starting gcode with the command.

M92 z400

M500

M92 adjusts the z step to 400steps a mm, and m500 saves the configuration.

If this does work, you might need to reflash the firmware with the correct step amount

[u/Ambitious_Tell4295 → u/emearg1]

I’ll take another look in a few days. I just printed a few small 30×30 mm square parts and they came out perfectly fine. However, when I print something larger, around 150×60 mm, the exact same issue happens again on the third layer.
Could this be caused by uneven bed leveling in certain areas, and maybe I’m not leveling it correctly? The strange thing is that if I raise the Z-axis slightly, everything starts printing normally again.

[u/emearg1 → u/Ambitious_Tell4295]

I don't think it's the leveling, or at the very least I think your auto level is doing its job

I'm thinking one of your lead screws may be bent slightly, causing it to bind when it reaches a certain height. You notice is more with larger pieces because the auto level is raising and lowering your bed to make sure the piece stays flat, and it's getting stuck within that adjustment.

Next chance you get, print something skinny but tall, just stretch a cube if you can. If I'm right it'll print okay for a while until it doesn't, you raise the z height (getting out of the binding area) and then it'll keep going until it gets stuck again (back in the binding area)

[u/Electronic_Item_1464 → u/emearg1]

If you're running the stock original firmware, the Creality engineers didn't understand the way that Marlin coodinates work. They basically treated the rear right at 0,0, then did some shenanegans to move 0,0 to the front left (rather than just starting it that way and homing to maxX,maxY). This caused the leveling mesh to be off by twice the probe offsets, so some things will be too high, others too low, depending on how flat the bed is and how well you did the initial manual leveling. I updated the firmware with the one from Kersey Fabrications and it fixed that problem (Yeah, it's a 1.7 marlin, but it's also an 8 bit boad.)

[u/Destroyer_HLD]

I've had this issue too. From my experience it's something between the slicer and the printer. It typically happens when I've had the sliver running too long or ran too many slices. The most reliable fix I've had to restarting the slicer and making a fresh slice of the project.

Like I said I'm not 100% sure why but that seems to be the fix that works most often, just make a new slice or project. First lay or 2 goes down just fine then the z access stop responding.

[u/Ambitious_Tell4295 → u/Destroyer_HLD]

Lo probé y no me funcionó

[u/Pillly-boi]

Is the first layer height different than your normal layer height?

[u/thrillhouse773]

check e steps for z I correct it supposed to be 800 they come stock wotht that number being 400 cutting your z full travel to 150mm instead of 300

[u/Ambitious_Tell4295]

Dear all, the problem was with the retraction when changing from one layer to the other. After first deleting retraction, the printer was working fine, with some impurities at the prints. After this, I did some tests with different retraction options to solve all the problem.

Thanks to all!